Does It Matter?

Chapter 29

Maric had still been there when Dara had woken up again, ready to help him drink and to get more food into him.

It was evening now, though, and Maric was gone. He had said he had some business to attend to and had left Dara under Brayan's care.

Or perhaps it was Brayan who had been left under Dara's care. He was particularly quiet and pensive. He had been polite enough to ask how Dara was feeling when he'd first arrived, but soon after Maric had left he had set his focus on the task of very thoroughly polishing Maric's formal boots and hadn't said a word since. Dara was fairly sure that wasn't even one of his duties.

Dara sat cross legged on the bed and watched him. "Are you upset about Bug?"

Brayan glanced up for a second before returning his eyes to his work. "I hardly knew him."

"You're quieter than usual."

"I'm thinking."

"What are you thinking about?"

"Well... yes, about Bug," Brayan admitted. "But not because I'm upset."

"Okay," Dara said, though he wasn't sure he entirely believed that. There was an undeniable melancholy to Brayan's demeanour.

"You're Eth. Perhaps you understand all this better than me."

"Understand what?"

"Bug had certain visions that weren't under his control. Visions that seemed to guide him in very deliberate ways. And these visions led to him telling us that you had been hurt."

"Yes, Maric told me about that. I'm very grateful to him for his help."

"But that's the thing. He didn't really help. Not in any meaningful way. I appreciate being alerted to the situation sooner, but either way we would have found out before long and you would have survived."

"Probably," Dara admitted. "But I still appreciate it."

Brayan shook his head and switched his polishing attention to the other boot. "Of course. My point is that it didn't help us very much, and it certainly didn't help him, so what was the purpose of it? Why was it so important that he be involved?"

"I don't know."

"That's where I'm at. I thought maybe we were supposed to help him, but I tried and I failed. I don't know if I'm not doing what I'm supposed to or if I just don't understand."

"Well, the way I see it, either that mysterious force guiding him through visions is fallible or it isn't. If it's fallible, then perhaps the fact that this situation didn't really work to anyone's benefit was simply an accident. If it isn't fallible, then surely you don't need to search for what you're supposed to do. It ought to have set the situation up correctly so that what you're supposed to do will simply be what you will do when faced with whatever happens."

Brayan stopped polishing the boots for a few seconds as he thought. Finally, he nodded. "That sounds reasonable. Do you know much about seers?"

"Oh, no. Probably less than you at this point, since you've spent some time with Bug. I was a child when I became a slave. I might have knowledge on some Eth things you do not, but in general I'm no expert."

Brayan nodded slowly. "What was it like, being an Eth in Ticia? Were you treated well?"

"Hmm." Dara stretched out his arms. "We were outsiders, I suppose. We lived outside of the cities, travelled a lot. People would trade with us, but they wouldn't let their children play with Eth children. For the most part, though, we were respected. Nobody knows what an Eth might be capable of, and nobody wants to find out."